WARRIORS head coach Carl Hogg is ‘absolutely elated’ to have full control of first team rugby and insists the challenge remains to make the club a top six Premiership squad.
The former Melrose, Edinburgh and Scotland back row, who has six years’ experience as a head coach at Warriors and Gloucester, admits stepping up to fill the vacancy left by Dean Ryan following his departure last week was always going to happen, despite coming ‘a little bit sooner than expected’.
Hogg also revealed he will be running the team slightly differently to Ryan as they share different personalities, but will continue to implement the same philosophy on the squad.
“Dean came to the club with a mission to create a sustainable top six Premiership team and that’s still the challenge,” Hogg said.
“He left unexpectedly but we’re still on the same journey and I’m confident we can make it. We’ve got outstanding facilities and we’ve built a playing group that can be competitive, so I’m really excited about the opportunity to lead us going forward.
“Dean always spoke of a succession plan and a handover period. It’s just come a little bit sooner than expected, but I’m totally aware of the situation we face and it’s a challenge I’ve always wanted to take on.
“I’ve been coaching for 15 years so I’ve had plenty of experience in several environments and with time comes development and knowledge.
“I’ve known Dean a long time and he was originally the guy who brought me down from Scotland to Gloucester, so I’ve got huge respect for him as well a great working relationship and friendship.
“But I’ll be running things slightly differently to Dean as we have different personalities. We have a very similar philosophy though and I’ll keep implementing that on the squad.
“We fought hard to get ourselves in this position but I’m absolutely elated to take control. The Premiership is a tough environment so we’ll have to take small incremental and steady steps, but it’s a challenge we’re all excited about,” he added.
Hogg will be joined by high performance director Nick Johnston, who retains responsibility for running the academy, medical, sports science and player welfare departments and is adamant the club will continue to develop without Ryan.
“You can’t underestimate Dean’s intellect. Carl and I were very close to him and the beauty of having such intellect in the room is that it gets passed down,” Johnston said.
“There won’t be drastic change as there doesn’t need to be. You don’t change something if it’s not broken. We’re a succession club from our players to our staff and we’re proud of our current development.
“We’re ambitious and want to win things. We just have to up our standards,” he added.